Reading the first few pages, Soldiers of Salamis, it was already a dark story filled with war and violence. One section that stood out was Machado’s death and his brother finding his last poem in his pocket. “These blue days, this childhood sun.” It was saddening to read this poem after him and his family fled to the French border for safety, leaving everything behind.
In all honesty, it was somewhat difficult to follow this story while reading. I feel as if there were multiple storylines and characters that overlapped each other and were difficult to keep track of the relation between these characters. I do not know much about the Spanish Civil War so it was also somewhat difficult to keep up with the history of it as well in regards to the novel. Nonetheless, Soldiers of Salamis was well written. It kept me on the edge of my seat with the instances of interviews the writer conducted. Despite the novel being written about the war and those affected by it, I believe writing about those who played a major role keeps that memory alive. When Jaume Figueras asked if he was going to write about his father who passed away, the author mentioned how Figueras must have thought if he wrote about his father, his father would not be entirely dead. It did feel that way. Like he mentioned, his novel will be a true tale and not a story. I was somewhat confused on why he would lie to Figueras about writing the story about his father, as if he was hesitant to do so.
There is also a connection to Amulet! The writer interviewed him shortly after Bolano won an award for his books. I really enjoyed the connection between these two authors. There was a discussion between the two about what it means to be a hero and by Roberto’s definition, a hero is not someone who kills but someone who does not kill.
A recurring theme of memories has been prevalent in a lot of the novels we have read so far. In another discussion with Roberto, they discussed what it means to be a writer or how to write a novel. Bolano exclaims that to be a writer, you must have memories and there is no need for imagination. This gave me a new perspective on what it means to write. When Bolano knew he did not have much time left, he was saddened to realise that he was not going to be able to write the novels he had planned. Relating back to the first chapter of this book, Figueras thought that if a story was written about his father who had passed away, that his father was not fully dead, and that his memories live on through writing. I feel as if it was the same for Bolano. He was heartbroken that he was not about to write more about the soldiers who were killed in wars, as well as the Latin Americans in his generation.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this week’s novel. There was an interesting connection to last week’s reading and I have gained a whole new perspective on writing!
